New Republican budget promises entitlement reforms, lower taxes

Will Rahn
The Daily Caller
5/10/2012

A new Republican budget introduced by freshman Sen. Mike Lee this week takes a hard line against entitlement spending, high taxes and the growth of government.

According to an outline obtained by The Daily Caller, the budget promises to reduce publicly held debt to roughly 52 percent of GDP over the next decade and balance the budget by 2017. It would also reduce spending to 17.8 percent of GDP by 2022, and transform entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security into basic insurance programs that would no longer provide benefits to wealthy Americans.

Lee’s “Saving the American Dream” budget is based off of a plan originally put forward by the Heritage Foundation. At its heart is a tax simplification plan that would do away with tax loopholes for special interests, estate and excise taxes, and the 15.3 percent payroll tax.

In place of the complex current tax system, Lee’s budget would introduce a “unified” consumption tax that would apply the same rate to both individuals and corporations…